The Price of Punishment
by Graham Cray
Summary: What would have happened if Colton and Troy had killed Hero and Co. when they were aboard the Kooluk ship? This is an AU story of Suikoden IV, where the main hero has been killed and the Rune of Punishment is in the hands of the villains. PG-13 for now
1. Chapter 1: Dead on the Water

-1- 

Dead in the Water

_"How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is." -Wilhelm von Humboldt_

"I'm sorry, Lord Troy," said Colton, letting the rain wash the blood from his blade. It mingled with the water on the ship's deck, giving the planks a red sheen in the moonlight.

"I suppose it couldn't be helped," said Troy, turning away from the massacre. His blade, too, was bloody, and he tossed it to the deck in disgust.

Thunder sounded in the distance, and for several moments, the old man and the young warrior stood in silence, listening to the falling rain. In the distance, the firelights of Razril winked and flickered in the downpour. Tomorrow, they would strike, cutting off the Knights from the rest of Gaien, and hopefully obtain the treasure that the Governor and Cray so dearly coveted.

"What should we do with the bodies?" asked Colton. He bent down and closed the lids of the four corpses. He murmured a quick warrior's prayer over them.

Troy brushed away some of the brown hair matted to his forehead. He stared out to sea. "Throw them overboard. Let the sea take them."

"It will be done," said the older man. Colton signaled to the two Kooluk captains standing guard in front of the bridge door, and they hustled over, their heavy armor clanking. He relayed to them Troy's orders. With a sharp salute, the two soldiers bent down and shouldered the bodies.

First overboard was the cold corpse of the Nay-Kobold, then the elf woman. Next was the strong-headed man with the warrior's arms. As they picked up the final body, the body of the young boy with the headband, Troy stopped them.

He walked over to the body cradled in the soldiers' arms and brushed the wet, brown hair out of the boy's lifeless face. He stroked the cold cheek with a gloved hand, running it down the contours of the face and neck.

"Young knights, dead so young," said Troy to himself more than anything.

"Unfortunate, yes" said Colton, putting a wrinkled, but strong hand on his superior's shoulder. "But, for them, it was wrong place, wrong time. This is war, Lord Troy; we have no room for sympathy for the enemy. Many more like them will die tomorrow if they do not surrender. You know that."

"Yes," said Troy, but his dark eyes were somewhere else, in another time, another place.

Colton cocked his head, motioning for the captains to dispose of the boy's body. Thunder boomed overhead. Suddenly, as the soldiers reached the railing, a dull, orange glow, like a still-burning ember in the fireplace spent burning all night, cut through the black of the night from beneath the boy's glove.

In the span of a second, Troy had scooped up his sword and Colton brandished his own. The soldiers gasped and dropped the body, taking several steps back, fearing some strange magic. The boy's body fell in a heap, like a puppet with its strings cut. The glow pulsated and brightened in intensity, and an unnatural heat washed over the crew aboard the ship.

"What devilry...?" said Colton, but Troy was already moving. The handsome warrior knelt beside the body. He pushed back the boy's glove and his eyes widened a fraction of an inch at the rune he saw there.

"This..."

"What?" said Colton, edging closer.

"The Rune of Punishment."

The glow became brighter and brighter until the ship was surrounded by a halo of orange light, lit up by its own personal sun.

"You mean to say that we have it here? By _accident?_" said Colton, almost smiling.

But Troy's face remained impassive. "It would appear to be so." He stood and called out orders to the ship's crew. "Turn us around! We sail for Kooluk immediately!"

"Yes, sir!" echoed the soldiers.

Before anyone could move, the Rune vanished from the boy's hand. Colton screamed in pain, tilting his head back to the sky, mouth wide in a cave of agony. He tumbled backward, clutching his right hand. His head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled back into his head as he stumbled out of consciousness. Troy watched with barely expressed concern until he noticed the shallow rise and fall of the old man's chest, assuring he was still alive. He reached down and pried Colton's left hand from his right and saw the Rune of Punishment there like the mark of a curse on his friend.

He didn't have to turn his head to know that the body of the boy had vanished, scattered like the cremated ashes of the dead. When he noticed the soldiers looking on with horror, he stood and drew his blade.

"I said Kooluk! Now!"

They scattered and Troy was left alone with his unconscious friend, the rain beating down on both of them, marking this night forever.

"Let's get you inside, old man," he said, putting Colton's arm over his shoulder. "Let us hope you make it back to Kooluk alive, else that Rune's curse will be mine to bear." He reached the cabin, laid Colton down on the straw mat in the corner, then stepped back out into the rain.

"I pity you, Colton."


	2. Chapter 2: Snowed Under

-2-

Snowed Under

_"Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt." - Henry Bolingbroke_

"Where are they" said Snowe, pacing back and forth along the Razril docks. With him stood a contingent of Knights-in-Training, one of whom held a spyglass to his eyes, peering out into the rainy darkness of the sea.

"Hm, no sign of 'em, Commander" said Spyglass, wiping the wet lens on his shirt and tucking the glass into his belt. "What now"

Snowe nervously ran a hand through his hair as he paced. This wasn't the way it was supposed to work out. He'd received a message from Colton of Kooluk scarcely twenty-four hours after assuming the position previously occupied by the late Glen. The message had warned him of the impending invasion of Razril, as well as pointing out-quite arrogantly in his opinion-that Gaien had no intention of aiding them. His heartbeat spiked to a hundred before he read the next lines, the ones that would set him apart from Glen and every commander before him.

_However, we offer an alternative to annihilation. Give Razril to us and there will be no more violence than necessary. Your people will remain safe under the Kooluk banner._

Snowe had jumped up at the thought of what this might do to his image. Surely, if Kooluk could not be prevented from attacking, then his astute decision to prevent any unecessary loss of life would hail him as a hero to his people. Yes! That had to be the answer. They would remember him for this for years to come.

He closed his eyes and smiled, imagining the parade in his honor, thrown by the very knights and citizens of which he had now been charge. Breathing deeply, he could smell the scent of rose petals tossed like confetti at his feet. The roar of the crowd, the adulation of the young women, and, most importantly, that look of disappointment nowhere to be seen anywhere on his father's smug face. What was pointedly absent from the vision was _him._

_You're gone now, Allen, _he thought. _It's _me_ they'll follow, _me_ they'll look up to. _

He tried to muster up the animosity he'd felt in that moment of terror when Glen had disintegrated before his very eyes, but the conscience he tried so desperately to suppress welled up beneath his armor and forced him to feel just the slightest pang of guilt.

_No, I..I..I did nothing wrong, _he thought, trying to banish the contradictory feeling, _You murdered our commander. I _saw_ you. Jealous, that's all you were. Jealous of my family, jealous of my status. You tried to take that from me, and you got what you deserved._

But he was gone now, and Snowe was still here, commander of the finest soldiers on this side of the ocean. Heck, the finest soldiers _anywhere_. He would finally be recognized for the talent that had been overshadowed by the deceit of his friend. No, _former_ friend. His father had taken Allen in and he'd repayed Lord Vingerhut by setting his only son up for failure. He'd been poisoning Commander Glen's mind against him ever since the attack on this ship where his arm had been immobilized.

They just didn't _understand._

But all that was about to change. The message had instructed Snowe, if he accepted conditions, to wait on the docks two hours after midnight. A longboat bearing the Child of the Sea God, Troy himself, would arrive and, should Snowe be waiting, signal Colton's fleet to the docks.

Snowe had told no one about the clandestine meeting before him, excepting, of course, the trainees with him, fresh men whom he thought were mostly free of the lies spread by Allen and Glen in the past weeks. When they'd expressed concern about a trap, he's assured them that he was more than a match for Troy, whose only claim to fame was a gimmick intended to inspire fear in lesser warriors. But not Snowe, he knew better.

It had been raining since they took to the docks at ten minutes till meeting time, and as they stood there growing more and more wet, cold, and miserable, more than half an hour had passed with no sign of the longboat or the legendary Troy.

"They _said_ they'd be here" shouted Snowe. He stomped his foot and rudely snatched the spyglass from the trainee.

"Aha" he said, pointing out into the dark. The trainees swiveled their heads and squinted their eyes, trying to see what their commander might be imagining. "Here comes the boat! Though I thought Troy to be more fearsome..."

Soon, even in the rain, everyone could see the longboat coming in silently to the port. It held only one passenger, and if it was Troy, then maybe Snowe had been right about the legend surrounding him. It seemed to be a normal soldier, dressed in the arms of Kooluk, a scroll case clutched tightly in a mailed hand. The sword at his waist remained sheathed.

As the boat docked, the man stepped onto the slick stones, nearly losing his balance. Only a swift hand to the mooring post kept him from tumbling backward into the deep where he would most assuredly have sunk to his death.

Snowe didn't try to hide his smile. Let this arrogant lord of Kooluk know that he was up against Snowe Vingerhut. Here in Razril, he was in charge.

"Careful, Troy" said Snowe, deliberately omitting any respectful honorific"Rain tends to make things a little slippery." His trainees giggled because they assumed it was the proper thing to do.

The Kooluk man stared out with heavy, dark-rimmed eyes, twisting his scruffy mouth into a smirk. "I ain't Troy. He's gone. Told me to bring this." He handed over the scroll case and, without any further ceremony, started back for his boat.

Could he do that? Snowe wondered. Could he dismiss him so curtly? Images of Glen and knighthood and his father flashed with lightning quickness through his mind on a course of action. Should he reprimand the Kooluk man? Imprison him? Kill him? Let it go? The whole situation had taken him by surprise and, due to the training lost in the time his name was smeared, hadn't yet learned to adapt to these situations.

He quickly removed the scroll from its case and read it, memorizing the words before the rain dripped them off the page.

_Commander,_

_We have fulfilled our orders and therefore must withdraw our previous bargain to you. We depart your waters even as you read this to return to Kooluk. But worry not; no one will know of your potential treachery, unless you choose to tell them, of course. _

_I truly pity Razril for the cowardice of its Commander. Think on the meaning of the words 'loyalty' and 'duty' while you sit in your office, knowing that you remain free for another day, through no part of your own._

_Our courses may merge again one day._

Snowe tossed the scroll to the ground, his hands quaking. No! This couldn't happen! He was finally in the position his birth demanded of him and he was _still_ being mocked. The bastard hadn't even bothered to sign the message. His chance for glory was fading, like Troy's ship in the night, and he would be damned if he let it stand.

"Men, to the _Maiden_" he said, his mouth a tight line. He puffed out his chest, then noticed that everyone, the Kooluk man included, was staring incredulously at him.

"Did you not hear me? I said to the _Silver Maiden_. Now"

"Um...why...sir..er..Commander" stammered one of the trainees, an obviously impudent kid whose name wasn't worth remembering.

"We've been tricked. That coward Troy is fleeing. Best we get him when he least expects it. Now, go"

"Is this guy serious" said the Kooluk soldier.

The trainees weren't sure if Snowe was or not, but they weren't about to disobey orders. They hustled down the dock toward Razril's flagship.

"Yeah, good luck with that" said Kooluk, chuckling loudly.

"Where do you think you're going" said Snowe, a triumphant smile on his face as he pulled his blade free from its scabbard. He lowered it at the Kooluk man.

Again the soldier laughed and turned his back, lowering himself into his own longboard. "Sure, kid. Don't hurt yourself with that thing."

Snowe was appalled. How dare this man walk away from him? Even the _dregs_ of Kooluk society were mocking him. He lunged at the soldier, but his foot caught a puddle and slid from under him. He toppled face-first onto the wet dock and his sword skittered from his hand into the water, where it sank with a _plop_. Through the humiliation roaring in his ears, Snowe barely heard the Kooluk man's laughter as he sailed away.


End file.
